Check out the latest buzz on Digital Green in the media. Please contact the digital Green Team for additional details.
Stockholm Challenge Finalist
“The Stockholm Challenge 2008 features a six category Award for ICT for Development projects. The best projects will win the prestigious Stockholm Challenge trophies and receive a 5.000 Euro stipend."
Carnegie Mellon: Bill Gates Unplugged - On Software, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Giving Back
“Sometimes the solutions aren’t cool because of the technology. They're really cool because of the impact. One that I'll cite, we call Digital Green, which was done by our Indian research lab which has a particular focus on the needs of the 2 billion people at the bottom of the pyramid. They went out to the farmers and saw that a direct use of computing wouldn't be possible: no cell phone network and no electricity. The real problem is farming productivity. If you have a drought and didn’t grow enough during the season before, you literally suffer malnutrition. This has a lifetime negative effect, or in the extreme case, even starvation. So, they saw that there were techniques that the farmers could apply to more than double their output. But, the current extension system just wasn't getting the message to them in the right way. The adoption rate for advances among smallholders was about 15%. What they did was use the advanced technology of DVD. They filmed farmers doing it the right way in the local language. After some editing, they took the best practices and hired people who were socially connected to the farmers to go out with a battery-powered DVD player and show the videos. What they found was a tripling in the adoption of these farming practices. That’s a significant impact in terms of the nutrition and the ability to live through bad seasonal effects. In fact, they even created this wonderful dynamic where the farmers wanted to be in the videos. It’s a lot like "American Idol". But, this is "Farmer Idol.” "I've got this technique and you got to get me on there." That kind of competition is a wondrous thing to see.”
UN-FAO e-Agriculture.org Global Example
“E-Agriculture is one of the action lines identified in the declaration and plan of action of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has been assigned the responsibility of organizing activities related to the action line under C.7 ICT Applications on E-Agriculture. In 2006, a multi-stakeholder working group was set up to guide efforts in this area."
Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie: Southern India - The Spice of Life
Visit a tiny farming community where local farmers cultivate indigenous ragi grain using sustainable agricultural practices and make some gooey ragi mudde. This excerpt is from Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie "Southern India: The Spice of Life"
Chicago Tribune: Microsoft's Gates says computers not cure-all
..using "DVD players that can be carried in and are battery operated is about as high-tech as you need in order to take to farmers and show them best practices," Gates said. With DVDs, "the adoption rate is three times what it was when we weren't using this approach."
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Gates urges help for 'bottom third'
“But a project supported by the Gates Foundation produced a DVD showing how some farmers were able to improve their yields with better practices, and workers could take a battery-powered DVD player and TV set to different villages to show that video.”
The Record: BILL GATES ASKS YOUTH TO CHANGE THE WORLD
[Bill Gates] described a project where farmers' best practices were filmed. A DVD of their practices was made and taken, with a DVD player, for other farmers to see.
Local farmers adopted the practices more frequently than they had before, and were anxious for their own techniques to be recorded. "It was doing better than American Idol, except it was Farmer Idol."
The Daily Texan: Viewpoint: Opening the Gates
Gates generates and applies innovative solutions to Third World countries using technology. For example, his foundation takes simpler machines, such as DVD players, to villages in sub-Saharan Africa to show farmers new, more effective farming techniques. When the farmers utilize better techniques and see the beneficial results, they give a shot of adrenaline to their economies and create a competitive atmosphere, thus providing them with incentive to continue to achieve, Gates explained. This tried-and-true capitalistic mentality, when applied to a developing area, drives global progress.
Imprint: Technology for the world
[Bill Gates] discussed the power of technology to assist in developing nations, using an initiative from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to illustrate his point. The foundation, which has a focus on improving global health, development and education, used portable DVD players and videos made by the top farmers in the world to help educate farmers in Africa and so improve the yield of their crops.
